Manitoba residents have elected the province’s first ever First Nations premier. But, as newly elected Wab Kinew has been quick to observe, the western Canadian province has had other premiers with Indigenous roots, including Louis Riel, who was hanged in 1885 for leading two rebellions to defend the self-determination rights of Indigenous people. One of Premier Kinew’s first public acts was to reinstate Riel, a Métis, as Manitoba’s rightful, honorary first premier. Continuing Manitoba’s rebellious tradition, in 1919 residents of Winnipeg walked out in protest over deteriorating social conditions after World War One – the biggest strike in Canada’s history.
Kinew’s October 2023 election is significant to all of Canada’s Indigenous groupings: the First Nations, only granted the vote in the 1960s; the Inuits, themselves only granted suffrage in 1950; and the Métis, born to mixed First Nations and European heritage, who also suffered disenfranchisement.
